MSV Signs Launch Deals With ILS, Sea Launch

Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) awarded contracts to International Launch Services Inc. (ILS) and Sea Launch Co. to launch next-generation satellites, ILS and Sea Launch announced May 15.

The ILS agreement is for a 2009 single firm launch costing $89 million and includes a $93 million option for a second launch. The first MSV spacecraft is planned to launch aboard a Proton/Breeze M vehicle from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Sea Launch plans a 2010 launch using a Zenit-3SL vehicle lifting off from a floating platform at the equator near the Pacific Ocean island of Kiribati. That deal is worth $86 million.

MSV’s satellites, under construction by Boeing Co., are designed to provide broadband wireless coverage of North and Central America.